Ball of Energy
by xSn0wangel
Summary: It's the first day of class and Gray can't stop staring at the guy with the pink hair. Will be a Gratsu Two-shot!
1. Chapter 1

On the first day of class, I noticed him as soon as he walked in. Seriously, with hair that shade of pink, everyone's eyes at the very least flickered over to him as he plopped down in an open seat in the front row. Apparently he knew the girl he'd sat next to, she had long straight scarlet hair, but that was all I could make out, from all the way back in the fifth row, of the lecture hall.

I'd always been more of a back row kind of guy, where the teacher would be less likely to notice if I ended up spacing out halfway through class. However, when I'd arrived, the last couple tiers of seats had already been filled in so I made do with what was left.

I wasn't surprised at the number of people crammed in the room considering it was an introductory level human anatomy class, yet, it still seemed a bit overwhelming when I looked around. Growing up in such a small town, I really wasn't used to having so many people around to distract me during lecture.

However, out of everyone in the room, my eyes drifted down to him. Even when our professor began explaining the syllabus, I couldn't help but fixate on the pen he was spinning over his thumb or how his head moved side to side every so often. It was like watching a little kid trying to sit still after eating a bowl of ice cream.

When class finally ended, he was the first one to hop up and dash from the room. I figured his next lecture must have been far away or something for him to take off like that and smiled to myself at his energy level as I gathered my things together to shove into my backpack. Luckily my next class was only two rooms away so I had plenty of time to make my way down the hall.

Waking into my human physiology class, I was rather shocked to see the pink haired guy was staring down in my general direction from the second to the last row. Why had he run out of class for a less than a minute walk? Shrugging to myself, I took a seat in the row behind him and was thoroughly pleased to be in the back.

Even I was closer to him for the next hour, my eyes easily looked past the pink hair and focused on the PowerPoint up on the projector. If I let this guy distract me in every class, I knew there was no way I was going to maintain my scholarships, so I made sure to pay attention. At least I did a pretty good job, until he turned around.

His mossy green eyes were as bright as the grin stretching across his face. Wondering how anyone could be so genuinely happy about passing someone an attendance sheet, I could only manage blank stare as I accepted the paper from him. The fact that he still had roundish cheeks was adorable.

Handsome, but cute…exactly my type.

As he turned back around I noticed a long jagged scar peak out from above the scarf wrapped around his neck. I wondered briefly about how someone could get injured there before almost smacking myself for not paying attention, again.

When the clock hit three and the teacher finished up class, the guy in front of me jolted out of his seat just as before and jumped down the stairs two at a time on his way out of the room. I sighed as I watched him disappear through the doorway. If he ended up in the same labs as me, I was seriously worried about my grades.

That night, after grabbing some dinner and finishing up on some reading for class, I decided I should probably go workout. I'd been pretty active in high school with soccer and tennis which made me even more determined to avoid the freshman fifteen that everyone preached about.

It wasn't too chilly outside, but the sun had set long ago so I went ahead and walked to the university's recreational center. The place was a pretty good size with lots of workout machines, weights, and an eighth of a mile track that stretched the periphery of the main room.

After chucking my stuff in a locker, I headed straight for an empty treadmill. Not feeling particularly motivated, I started off at a fast paced walk as I scrolled through playlists in my phone. Nothing really sounded good so I wasn't really off to a good start, but I settled on something with a descent beat before setting the phone down and focusing on moving.

Looking up, there was a flash of pink running past me. It was that same guy again rushing around the track! I didn't see much of him the first time he came around but as he circled by I could tell he was really going all out. His baggy sleeveless shirt was sticking to his lean frame and his skin was flushed red from exertion.

For some reason, seeing him sprinting around was exactly the motivation I needed.

Hitting the stop button on my treadmill, I leaped off and headed over to the track. Patiently waiting for him to make the trip back around, I instantly took off to match his pace when he ran by. Probably too caught up in his music since he also had ear buds in, he didn't notice me for the first lap we did together, but the second time around, he looked over in surprise.

"Hey!" he spoke a little too loudly from not being able to hear himself, "You're the guy from phys!"

I nodded once with a slight smile. There was something endearing about the determination in his eyes.

"Think you can keep up with me?"

Nodding again, I sped up my footfalls and pulled ahead of him. Eyes narrowing at my challenge, he lengthened his stride to quickly make up the distance. Both of us knowing what this was turning into, I completely stopped caring about energy conservation and shifted into full gear while he continuously fought beside me.

The concept of time was gone to me as my lungs greedily gulped air and my feet thudded against the rubbery padded floor. We could've gone five laps, twenty laps, two laps, I had no clue how many curves we'd slowed for or how many straights I'd tried to dash ahead on. All I knew was that I would win this race, even if we had to run a marathon-length distance.

Forcing my legs forward despite their inability to move any faster, my competitor's heavy breaths suddenly disappeared from my left. Confused, I slowly jogged to a stop and looked back to see if he'd given up or something.

"Natsu what have I told you about racing around the track like a crazy person?! How can anyone use it when they'll be too afraid to get trampled by your idiotic version of exercise?! If you can't keep yourself from challenging people then you need to take it outside!" shouted a red headed girl,that I recognized from my anatomy class, as she dragged him off the track. Her hands were clamped around the pink haired guy's shoulders as she shook him back and forth while chastising him. His eyes were wide with terror as she finished her lecture and turned to me.

Concerned for my safety after seeing him get harassed, I approached them gradually.

"I don't believe we've met," she said rather formally for someone our age. "My name is Erza."

"Gray," I replied hesitantly. "It's nice to meet you."

"Likewise, I'm assuming you already know Natsu here."

Natsu timidly gave a half wave from beside her since I'm assuming he hadn't quite recovered from Erza's unexpected attack.

"Kind of, we're in the same anatomy and physiology classes."

"Anatomy too! Sweet we can totally study together!" I scratched the back of my head as I wondered how I was supposed to study with him, when I could barely keep my eyes off him during lecture.

"Oh yeah, have you gone over the first chapter of phys? It seems pretty basic so far."

Natsu gave me an odd look, "You're already studying on the first day?"

I laughed though I was a little out of breath still. "Yeah I like to go over the material again after class since it's still fresh in my mind."

"That makes sense," Natsu agreed. "I guess I should look over stuff tonight." He frowned which made me wonder if he would even open his textbook.

"You mean you're going to study as soon as you get back to your dorm," said Erza as she crossed her arms over her stomach.

"But Erzaaaa I'm hungry."

"Then maybe you should've eaten dinner instead of running for two hours."

"Two hours?" I questioned because I wasn't sure if I heard her right.

"Yeah, I love running," exclaimed Natsu with a little hop.

I tried not to blush at how adorable that was.

Then my competitive side realized that had he not been working out for such a long time, he could've beaten me during our race. I was seriously going to start some hardcore endurance training if I was going to keep up with him.

Wait, just how often was I going see this guy?

"Yeah I noticed. Well, I'm going to hit the showers. I'll see you guys around though," I said with a wave as I turned to head to the men's locker room. Part of me just wanted to walk back to my dorm and shower there but I couldn't ignore the feeling of sweat dripping down my skin. Glancing over at the clock, Natsu had gotten me to run pretty hard if I was this gross in only thirty minutes.

"I'm going to call it a day too," I heard Natsu say before he appeared beside me. We walked in an easy silence to the locker room or rather, I walked and he half skipped. How could he still have so much energy?

We both grabbed our shower stuff out of our lockers, that I was glad I'd brought just in case, and headed over to the shower stalls. I pulled my curtain shut before I stripped and turned on the water. The chilly water felt like heaven as it washed over my heated skin.

"Aaaak! That's fucking cold!" shouted Natsu from the shower next to mine. "How's your water?"

"Mine's great," I replied as I lathered up my body with body wash. I washed my hair that morning so I really only had to worry about getting the sweat off me. As I rinsed off under the cool water, I sighed as I felt the layer of salty grime wash off my skin. Turning off the facet, I dried myself off and wrapped the towel around my waist as I pushed back the shower curtain.

Standing in front of his shower, was Natsu with the biggest pout on his face. He had his towel wrapped around his hips too but he was dripping wet from jumping out from underneath the shower spray. My eyes curiously watched a few drips as they ran over his chest and down his abs. I'd assumed he was pretty toned if he was a runner and it showed in his legs, but I didn't expect him to have such a solid six-pack!

Why did he have to be so perfect?

"My water won't heat up," he mumbled with one hand currently testing the water's temperature. He flinched back from it immediately, so it must've been pretty cold still. "If you're done I could just use yours!" he exclaimed with newfound enthusiasm.

I was going to tell him I took a cold shower, but I didn't have the heart to break it to him so I just headed back to my locker to redress.

I'd only pulled my boxers on when I heard him scream again.

"What are you a snowman?!" he accused from the shower. I guessed he was trying to bear with it long enough to wash up and he was pretty speedy too because he was out before I could even get my shirt on, which was probably good timing since his eyes dropped from my face.

I smirked and I couldn't resist asking, "Like what you see?"

He blushed with wide eyes and quickly looked away before padding across the tile floor over to his locker. I didn't look as he pulled on some basketball shorts and a plain t-shirt while I slipped a hoodie over my head.

Grabbing our gym bags, we headed out of the rec center and out into the night.

"I live in the Fairy Tail dorm so I'm headed this way."

"Seriously?" said Natsu with a huge smile and started walking the same direction as me. "I live there too! What floor are you on?"

I was pretty amazed that out of the ten dormitory buildings we lived in the same one.

"Third."

"I'm on the first, Erza lives right across the hall from me." That explained how the surprisingly strong, red headed girl knew him so well already.

"She seems a little intense."

Natsu laughed. "Yeah, but it's just because she's looking out for me."

We chatted about random things as we walked across campus, but when we reached the dorms, Natsu stopped abruptly.

"Hey give me your phone."

I wasn't sure what he was up to but I handed it over anyways. As he typed away, I admired the cute way his lips puckered as he focused on the phone screen.

"Done!" he announced as he gave it back to me shot me a regretful look.

"Well I'm going to grab some dinner." He jabbed a thumb over at the small convenience store on the other side of the next hill. "But I'll see you tomorrow?" he said with a hopeful inflection.

"Sure," I agreed.

He smiled at me one last time before quickly kissing my cheek and running away.

"Bye Gray!" he yelled over his shoulder while waving his entire arm.

After I recovered from his sneak attack kiss, I looked down at my phone and saw that his number had been added to my contacts.

Shuffling into Fairy Tail Hall, I couldn't fight back the grin that popped up on my face.

This semester was turning out to be way more exciting that I thought.

L7L7L7L7


	2. Chapter 2

I couldn't help but hate everything that crossed my path on my way to class. Sure I'd never been a morning person, but the sun was simply too bright for how chilly of a day it was, my backpack felt too heavy on my shoulders, and my stomach growled uncomfortably. There was absolutely nothing that could brighten my day, except maybe my bed if I could crawl back into it.

Well, at least that's what I thought before I walked into the anatomy lab room.

Natsu saw me first and I could tell he was refraining himself from bouncing with joy up and down in his seat. His ever-present smile shined even brighter as I headed to the empty seat beside him towards the back of the room. We'd figured out we were in the same anatomy lab class but not the same physiology class therefore I wasn't surprised to see him, but it was still nice.

Over the course of the last two weeks we'd grown closer and closer. He was constantly knocking on my door and blowing up my phone, worming his way into my life so deeply there was no way I could let him go. Why would I even want to?

"Good morning!" Natsu greeted happily and looked at me expectantly. I nodded in his direction, but didn't say anything as I pulled my binder out of my backpack. Until about ten o'clock I was basically a walking zombie, still I didn't have the heart to ignore him completely. Especially when he'd never met up with me before noon so he didn't know what to expect. As I reached down grab a writing utensil from under the books in my bag, an arm appeared around my shoulders.

"Graaaaaaay did I keep you up too late last night?" he asked innocently. My face burned red at the unintended implication as I shoved his arm off. Yes we'd been up well past two in the morning texting each other but he didn't have to say it like that! However, cutting my eyes at him I could tell he was more amused than upset by my reaction.

"No," I grumbled as I checked the time on my phone and wondered why the hell the teacher hadn't arrived yet when it was already seven fifty-five.

"Are you sure, Sleeping Beauty?" he whispered heatedly right into my ear which earned him a little shove. I wasn't too keen on him creeping into my personal space when I was half asleep and he should've figured that out the first time I'd pushed him away.

"Okay fine, I'll leave you alone," he laughed as he flipped open his notebook to a page already covered in doodles. I was kind of worried for his grades if he'd poured that much time into drawing nonsense when it was only the second week of classes. He hummed softly to himself as he worked on some blob-like creature that could've been a cat if it didn't have wings while I half-watched and half-spaced out.

I could already tell this was going to be a very long lab.

Our professor finally arrived with only one minute to spare which I guess was on time. Dressed in a white lab coat and lilac colored latex gloves, she spoke briefly about what we'd be learning for the year and how it would match up with what we were studying in the lecture portion of the course. It was a chance for us to actually see what we were attempting to understand from the power points slides she taught from every other day.

As she went on, a younger girl, who I assumed was the teacher's assistant, entered the room pushing a long metal container sitting on a large cart about six feet long. After our professor was through ranting about cell phone restriction in the lab, she gestured to the box behind her.

"I know your schedules say that today we're just going to be looking at different types of tissue under the microscopes, however, since most of you haven't seen a cadaver yet, I always like to show one on the first day."

"What's a cadaver?" whispered my pink-haired lab partner. At least he was attentive while doodling.

"It's kind of like a preserved human body," I tried to explain while the teacher pulled open the metal flaps covering the top of the container. Since the room was flat, we couldn't see anything quite yet but it really was only a matter of time.

"Preserved?" he questioned as he set down his pencil and cast me a thoughtful look. I could tell he still wasn't getting it.

"Like when someone donates their body to science, after they die."

"Wait," his eyes widened drastically, "It's a dead person?!"

"Well, yeah," I sighed wondering how Natsu thought he was going to study human anatomy without looking at an actual body. Personally I was pretty excited, to work with the cadavers. There was only so much you could learn reading books and studying colorful diagrams without seeing the real thing. Considering I was hoping to go on to medical school after graduating, this type of hands on experience was something I thought would really benefit me in the future.

Natsu pulled his scarf up over his nose and smashed his face into the material.

"God that smell, it's horrible." I could barely make out his muffled voice but could tell from his squinty eyes that he wasn't just being dramatic. Personally, I couldn't smell anything yet and since we were in the back of a room of about fifty people I was surprised that it was affecting him so strongly.

Removing some plastic bags and saturated towels from inside the box, our teacher ushered her assistant to the other end of the cart and they pushed upwards together to reveal the cadaver in all its glory.

Then the smell hit me like a wave. The putrid stench of formaldehyde was incredibly overwhelming and was mixed with something I decided not to think about.

Taking the shape of the cadaver from where I was sitting I really couldn't see much. It wouldn't be until we were up close that I'd be able to see anything other than the lovely color of skin.

To my right, I heard someone fall out of their chair. Of course there were bound to be a least a couple people uncomfortable with seeing a dead body so I didn't bother to stare. It was probably a girl and likely she was embarrassed enough without me adding to the number of people staring at her.

"There's always one," sighed the teacher as she headed towards us.

Wait, why was she coming towards us?

I looked over to Natsu, but all I saw was an empty chair.

Gasping, I felt my heart jolt painfully as I knocked his chair aside and crawled over to him on the white tile floor. Skin much paler than I remembered, his eyes were shut and his lips slightly parted as he laid sprawled on his side.

"Natsu!" I shook his shoulder worriedly but he was unresponsive. Completely at a loss for how to help him or what to do at all, I lightly pushed him onto his back to get a better look at him.

Seeing him like this was incredibly wrong! For the first time since I met him, he was entirely still and I ached to see him twitch, kick, or just move, at all!

What had happened to my little ball of energy?

Our teacher appeared beside me, her hand instantly sliding down beneath his scarf to feel for his pulse. It had only been maybe three minutes since he'd passed out, but when his nose scrunched up a few times and his eye lids lifted slightly I was so relieved!

"Huhh?" he groggily tried to speak. "What's going on?"

"He's okay, just a fainting spell," our professor explained to me with a brief smile on her lips. "Would you mind taking him outside for some fresh air? You're both excused from class."

"O-okay thank you," I promptly agreed as I threw my stuff back into my bag and tossed both our backpacks over my shoulder. Squatting down, I helped my confused classmate into a sitting position.

"Let's get out of here, yeah?" I asked him although I knew he had no idea what was going on. Even so, he helped me pull him to his feet without any complaints and didn't seem to mind leaning against me as we hobbled out of the room together. I wasn't sure if it was the adrenaline coursing or if he was naturally light, but it didn't take us long to get outside.

I walked us over to a large oak tree, then with my arms hooked under his armpits, I lowered him to a sitting position. He leaned his back against the tree trunk and closed his eyes again as his head lulled over to the side. Kneeling between his open legs, I studied him anxiously.

The teacher said he was fine and some part of me knew that, but at the same time I wasn't going to believe it until he told me so himself.

"Natsu, are you alright?"

"Mmmhmmm," he murmured but otherwise didn't respond. Acting the way he was, wasn't exactly making me feel any better.

Just as I was about to thoroughly interrogate him, his arms weakly reached towards me like he wanted a hug. Eating my words for the time being, I slid my arms around his waist and leaned in close enough to feel the warmth coming off of his skin. He draped himself over my shoulders and inhaled deeply as he nuzzled into my neck. My head hurt trying to figure out why he wanted a hug right now. Yet, it was hard for me to stay tense when he was half asleep and cuddled up to me.

Dammit I'd only known this guy for less than a two weeks and he'd managed to stress me out so badly I was probably going to start growing gray hair!

Well, whatever.

I really couldn't be mad at him for blacking out because it wasn't like he did it on purpose. Rubbing his lower back absentmindedly, I was so close that I could feel his heart beating fast against my chest. I blinked as I realized that it could have just as easily been my own.

"Gray, I'm sorry," he airily whispered. I felt one of his hands bunch up in the material of my cotton t-shirt.

"The smell was just too strong and when it hit me all at once, I don't know really know what happened."

Sighing, I loosened my arms and sat back on my heels. He let me move backwards, but his hands rested on my upper arms.

"It's okay, you just freaked me out a little bit, that's all."

He laughed softly and I could tell from the glimmer in his eyes that he knew I was downplaying my feelings.

"So does this mean you've officially fallen for me?" I smirked at the surprised look on his face.

"No! You're the princess remember? The girl always falls in love first!"

"I don't think that's how it works." I crossed my arms in pretend annoyance. "And how am I the girl? You're the one that just fainted."

His cheeks puffed out as he tried to think of a good rebuttal but looked pretty defeated after a bit. Poor thing had just passed out after all, I couldn't expect a full-fledged fight out of him.

I smiled as I ruffled my fingers through his soft pink hair.

"How about you save me next time then?"

His eyes lit up and for some reason I thought I was going to regret saying that. Shrugging to myself, I groaned as I stiffly stood up from the ground. Reaching a hand down to Natsu, I helped him stand as well.

"Since we're already up and have all this free time now, wanna grab some breakfast?"

"Hell yeah!" he cheered and eagerly grabbed my hand to pull me towards town. It would only be a ten minute walk to Natsu's favorite restaurant. I didn't mind him leading me around considering I was already way too alert for eight thirty in the morning. Besides how could I complain when he was bounding down the sidewalk with such a delighted smile on his face after such a dreadful start to our day?

Luckily labs were only once a week because I had no idea how Natsu was going to survive three whole hours of anatomy stench. But that was a problem for next week.

Mossy green eyes looked back at me as Natsu tugged on my hand again.

In only two weeks, this guy had dragged me all over campus, kept me up every night texting, called me whenever he had to walk to class by himself, studied with me at the library each evening, forced me to make him several meals, raced me around the track whenever he got the chance, scared the hell out of me by fainting, fallen asleep in my room more times than I can count, and gave every day a silver lining.

If he'd managed to do so much in such a short time, I wondered just how much excitement we'd have during these four years of college.

I guess only time would tell.

L7L7L7L7

I might add to this in future if I ever feel inspired again (: there's so much back story I never got to touch on and I'd love to write about them actually getting together :3


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